Hot 10 Week One
TagxedoI played around with Tagxedo because I love Wordle and using word clouds as a response to reading, a great way to boil down the essence of a story into core words and concepts. I found Tagxedo a little difficult to use, not that intuitive for me. For example, I couldn't figure out how to save my work, and I didn't want to post to Facebook. I did try to print to the school computer, and I'll see if that worked tomorrow when I get to school :) But, I do like the idea of using this app with poetry to teach the importance of diction to creating tone and meaning. I'm sure the students would be much more adept at using it than I was :)
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Poll EverywhereI could see using Poll Everywhere for quick formative assessments: reading checks, opinions on reading, self-assessing understanding, especially now that our cell phone use policy allows for use under teacher-supervision.
It would seem to be more for aggregate data, not individual student data? So, I could get a sense of whether my class, in general, understands a concept, not whether a specific student understands a concept. Still, I think students would love responding electronically rather than verbally or the old "thumbs up/thumbs down" in some situations. |
Hot 10 Week Two
PhotoSynth
Of this week's Hot 10 options, PhotoSynth intrigued me the most...but more for personal use than classroom use. In the classroom, I could see synthing my classroom for a cool 360 view of where students learn. Or, certainly, sometimes kids just look so cute when they're engaged in meaningful and fun activities, it would be fun to capture a 360 view. Students could certainly use this app to capture the magnitude of their surroundings if a project so required.
But, for personal use, it's like panorama on the iPhone, but more extensive for capturing landscapes in travel. What a cool way to share a trip with those at home--along with a website dedicated to that trip! |
Zamzar
Perfect for students to be technologically self-reliant and to reduce technology-related excuses to incomplete or missing work. Hopefully, if students and I are aware of this website, together we will be able to figure out how to convert any file from what their home computer uses to what our computers at school use--even if the teacher librarian is absent that day!
I think I'd have to play with it more because at this point I don't even really know what different file formats are. But just knowing this is an option, I can send kids here and I bet they can figure it out :) |
Hot 10 Week Three
OneWord
Yikes! I tried OneWord--the word was "oil." I wrote for one minute, which ended up being about three sentences. Then I had to enter my name, email address, and it also asked for a website, so I put my weebly website address. I clicked the black button, and suddenly my writing about oil was POSTED on the OneWord website! I hope my email address and website address aren't shared with these other random people commenting on oil!
So, for kids...eh...I'd worry about their posting to the world unfiltered. The description and idea are cool, but I don't know that I like the public-ness of it?? |
Track Class
What a powerful tool to help 9th graders become self-advocates for their learning. I asked my daughter whether she thought she and her classmates would find this app useful, and she immediately fetched her phone to download it. I'm glad to have this app to recommend to parents and students when the issue of organization comes up in meetings. TrackClass's feature of texting students their upcoming due dates, coupled with my observation that no 9th grader can ignore the alert of a new text message, could prove effective in providing handy reminders of assignments and quizzes due.
Also, the ability to attach files might be another way to eliminate excuses about "lost" work. :) I will be recommending this app to students and parents. |
Hot 10 Week Four
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Trading Card Creator
What a fun and quick response to reading! I made a trading card for the character of Odysseus from Homer's Odyssey. I found that you could even infuse a humorous tone of voice! I printed the card and I emailed it to myself. I can see kids using this for a concept we're studying or for any character we've read about. Very fun.
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Twister
I created another Odysseus item: a fake tweet from Odysseus (username TrojanWarHero). Since I'm actually just starting to use Twitter, this app was fun to play with. I know my kids would create these in no time and their hashtag phrases would be much better than mine. I like the idea of a computer lab day where kids get a menu of response to reading apps where they can be creative in quick ways. Since most of these apps have a print option, kids could display their work, too.
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